MediaTemple Grid Server Shared Hosting

Posted on May 4, 2010 by Luke

Update: The incident was escalated to medium, and then high, which at least makes up for one of my complaints. The speed of my sites is still somewhat questionable, but it has improved over what it was.

I am not sure whether my receiving an invitation to take a survey relates at all to recent server, database, email, and generally speaking, entire system issues I have been experiencing with my Grid Server shared hosting at MediaTemple, but here is how I responded to their request:

First, I currently cannot recommend MediaTemple Grid Server hosting as a competitive option. Due to the issues mentioned above I have recently found it necessary to research other hosting providers, and there are far better options out there that offer more features for less money. This says nothing about the speed, reliability, support, or anything else regarding these other vendors, but price and features are more important to me at this point, because I don’t require much support, my speed requirements are not unrealistic (sub 10-second page load time would be AMAZING at this point), and reliability should just be a no-brainer for a hosting company.

Second, here is what I wrote for my written response with a few details and links added:

Recent service outages, extreme slowness, security concerns, and other issues have really hurt my opinion of MediaTemple. Additionally, the cost-to-value is a lot higher than a number of other vendors out there. I do not need everything I am paying for, and after seeing the “unlimited” offers from other hosted solutions for about 75% less a year, I am very close to switching. I also do not have a good option that meets my needs of balancing the price to the features I need. The limitations that are put on the Grid Server Lite plan in regards to databases and email remove it as a viable option for reducing my cost, and it really is not a step up from other vendors’ options.

I have also been really hoping that MediaTemple would get involved with Turbogears or the Zend Framework, because I really enjoy both frameworks, but it looks like I will have to find another host if I ever want to actually publish anything I create for others to use.

Overall, I have just been fed up with paying for things I can get free elsewhere. This is the same reason I switched my domain registrar, because GoDaddy doubled my cost by adding on additional fees for a service that others provide free (namely private registration). This is the same reason I changed from my original hosting provider, Flockhosting, when my storage, bandwidth, and server needs grew to a level that they could no longer compete with on price.

I am not currently a high-traffic customer, and not a real drain on MediaTemple resources, and unfortunately, I feel like that is somehow a burden. I do not use my hosting for much, and until recently have really been sporadic about regular updates to anything. I was really let down though, when I recently offered to host a website for the company I work for to do a little extracurricular contest, and have now had to explain to people why the site is so slow, or has errors, because now that I actually try to use the service I have been paying for to do a little bit more…it has made me look bad in the eyes of my coworkers. I know that it is because of issues that may have been outside of the control of MediaTemple, but my coworkers could care less.

I joined MediaTemple because it was the host for sites that I trusted, like Digital Web Magazine, A List Apart, but given recent experience, I am really struggling to think there is not a big bait-and-switch being played on the small guys like me who respect the badges displayed by the folks we look up to in the industry. Here is what Digital Web said about MediaTemple that really sold me back when I signed up:

“If you’re looking for a stable host that fits your specific needs, make sure you check out Media Temple’s hosting options. From inexpensive shared hosting plans all the way up to high-powered dedicated servers running Linux or Windows, Media Temple most likely has a highly competitive solution for you.”

“Media Temple not only understands forward-thinking, leading-edge design, they practice it too. Digital Web Magazine is proud to recommend such a capable host that partners with organizations to promote the basic value of good collaboration within the web community.”

I realize they aren’t/weren’t paying for grid servers, and I guess I should have thought about that before I blindly jumped on the bandwagon. The sad thing is that my MediaTemple experience has tarnished my trust in anyone displaying the “Hosted by MediaTemple” on their site or otherwise advertising the solutions provided by MediaTemple.

Finally, I would like to point out the one thing that is really driving me nuts: the incident tracker. If this had been a small blip in an otherwise unsullied reputation I wouldn’t think anything about it, but they have marked this as LOW MEDIUM HIGH severity, and that pretty much reflects where I perceive I stand with them.

There is definitely an opportunity to change my opinion, because I am patiently waiting to see what happens when this all gets resolved, but it will take quite a bit, and at this point I will not be surprised if the loss of my business is a cost they are just willing to accept. Stay tuned to see how the drama plays out.

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30-something lists

Posted on January 24, 2010 by Luke

In honor of my 30th birthday (Roman XXX, Binary 11110, Babylonian <<<, Hexadecimal 1E) I have made three lists of ten items.

List 1 – Ten things I have enjoyed since my first experience of them:

  1. Drawing/Coloring (crayons, pencils, markers, chalk, etc.)
  2. Cartoons
  3. Fruit snacks
  4. Legos
  5. Computers/Electronics/Tinkering
  6. Italian and Mexican food
  7. Paintball
  8. Romantic comedies
  9. Music (performing and listening)
  10. Nature

List 2 – Ten people (or groups) that have changed the way I think about life, the universe, and everything:

  1. God/Bible
  2. Cori Dary
  3. My family
  4. My friends
  5. 4-year old Sunday school students
  6. Teachers/Professors (Mr. Tuchscherer, Mr. Thomas, Mrs. Kendrick, Mr. and Mrs. Robertson, Mrs. Broyles, Mrs. Mallow, Mr. Lampman, Mrs. Faulkner, Ms. Simpson, Mr. Spurgeon, Mr. Nash, Mr. Mills, Mr. Dary, Professor Coakley, Professor Dibrell, Professor Lawton, Professor McAlexander, Professor Craig, Professor Tyran)
  7. Co-Workers
  8. Authors (Douglas Adams, A.W. Tozer, C.S. Lewis, Patrick M. Morley, J.P. Moreland, Robert K. Greenleaf, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Dave Ramsey, G.K. Chesterton, Lee Strobel, Jeremy Keith, Donald Norman, Doug Fields, Ravi Zacharias, Charles Spurgeon, editors and contributors to GQ magazine)
  9. Celebrities
  10. Middle and High school students

List 3 – Ten things I still have difficulty with after three decades of life:

  1. Consistent prayer, quiet time, and Bible study
  2. Drama
  3. Flip turns
  4. Cleaning (Laundry and dishes especially)
  5. Personal finance
  6. Organisation
  7. Exercising consistently
  8. Buying groceries/meal planning
  9. Sleeping (or at least going to bed at a decent hour)
  10. Finishing personal projects
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New Year’s Inspiration

Posted on December 24, 2009 by Luke

A post over at Smashing Magazine has inspired me to set a unique resolution for the upcoming year: design something every day for a year. I am hoping that by setting aside some time to just be creative every day that I will also become more diligent at setting aside time for other daily or regular activities that I have also been putting off.

In order to help myself, I am compiling a list of potential inspiration words, phrases, or pictures that I can pull from when I do not have something immediately on my mind. Eventually, the list will be formatted into a tag cloud, and when clicked, the items therein will actually reduce in size the more they are used (so as to give repeats less likelihood).

In addition to graphic design, I am hoping to incorporate a variety of skills ranging from computer-related  (like 3-D models and photo manipulation) to non-computer skills like cooking and photography.

In order to be ‘accountable’ to the daily tasks I will use my website (http://lukedary.com) to do small write-ups about my output, and also post links to the site on my Twitter account under #daily365.

I’m excited to give my creativity a bit of a workout, so tune in on January 1st, 2010 for the first installment.

Continue reading →

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Einstein: The Military Mentality

Posted on December 24, 2009 by Luke

From The American Scholar, New York, Summer, 1947

It seems to me that the decisive point in the situation lies in the fact that the problem before us cannot be viewed as an isolated one. First of all, one may pose the following question: from now on institutions for learning and research will more and more have to be supported by grants from the state, since, for various reasons, private sources will not suffice. Is it at all reasonable that the distribution of the funds raised for these purposes from the taxpayer should be entrusted to the military? To this question every prudent person will certainly answer: “No!” For it is evident that the difficult task of the most beneficent distribution should be placed in the hands of people whose training and life’s work give proof that they know something about science and scholarship.

If reasonable people, nevertheless, favor military agencies for the distribution of a major part of the available funds, the reason for this lies in the fact that they subordinate cultural concerns to their general political outlook. We must then focus our attention on these practical political viewpoints, their origins and their implications. In doing so we shall soon recognize that the problem here under discussion is but one of many, and can only be fully estimated and properly adjudged when placed in a broader framework.

The tendencies we have mentioned are something new for America. They arose when, under the influence of the two World Wars and the consequent concentration of all forces on a military goal, a predominantly military mentality developed, which with the almost sudden victory became even more accentuated. The characteristic feature of this mentality is that people place the importance of what Bertrand Russell so tellingly terms “naked power” far above all other factors which affect the relations between peoples. The Germans, misled by Bismarck’s successes in particular, underwent just such a transformation of their mentality–in consequences of which they were entirely ruined in less than a hundred years.

I must frankly confess that the foreign policy of the United States since the termination of hostilities has reminded me, sometimes irresistibly, of the attitude of Germany under Kaiser Wilhelm II, and I know that, independent of me, this analogy has most painfully occurred to others as well. It is characteristic of the military mentality that non-human factors (atom bombs, strategic bases, weapons of all sorts, the possession of raw materials, etc.) are held essential, while the human being, his desires and thoughts–in short, the psychological factors–are considered as unimportant and secondary. Herein lies a certain resemblance to Marxism, at least in so far as its theoretical side alone is kept in view. The individual is degraded to a mere instrument; he becomes “human material.” The normal ends of human aspiration vanish with such a viewpoint. Instead, the military mentality raises “naked power” as a goal in itself–one of the strangest illusions to which men can succumb.

In our time the military mentality is still more dangerous than formerly because the offensive weapons have become much more powerful than the defensive ones. Therefore it leads, by necessity, to preventative war. The general insecurity that goes hand in hand with this results in the sacrifice of the citizen’s civil rights to the supposed welfare of the state. Political witch-hunting, controls of all sorts (e.g., control of teaching and research, of the press, and so forth) appear inevitable, and for this reason do not encounter that popular resistance, which, were it not for the military mentaility, would provide a protection. A reappraisal of all values gradually takes place in so far as everything that does not clearly serve the utopian ends is regarded and treated as inferior.

I see no other way out of prevailing conditions than a far-seeing, honest, and courageous policy with the aim of establishing security on supranational foundations. Let us hope that men will be found, sufficient in number and moral force, to guide the nation on this path so long as a leading role is imposed on her by external circumstances. Then problems such as have been discussed here will cease to exist

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Microsoft Case Study

Posted on September 25, 2009 by Luke

I am proud to share that CAPTRUST Financial Advisors was just featured in a newly published Microsoft Case Study.

I started working part-time with CAPTRUST in January of 2008 and was hired for a full-time Application Developer Associate position in June of that year. My initial role was to put together Javascript behaviors and to re-write the fiduciary portal to connect with the recently-installed version 4.0 of Microsoft Dynamics CRM (xRM).

It has been almost two years now, and I have been frequently impressed with the xRM system. As a package, it comes preset with many of the options one would need to manage corporate relationships between clients, employees, and vendors. In my opinion, however, the greatest strength of the software is in the ability to extend it, customize it, and also to integrate external applications or processing with it.

There is a bit of technical detail lost in the case study, and obviously some trade secrets that prevented screenshots, but they have captured the essence of what the last two years have been like. I’ve gotten the chance to work on a lot of great projects, and been able to learn some new things in the process. This case study gives me some personal satisfaction for recognition of what I have done.

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